Theme 2: Processes and signals

§2.1 General notions.

§2.2 Digital and analog signals.
§2.3 Clasification of typical signals
§2.4 Laplace transform
§2.5 Z transform

§2.1 General notions

A process is a dynamical system, whose behavior changes over time. Mathematically, the process
dynamics can be described by differential equations. Unsteady‐state (or transient) process behavior then
corresponds to a situation, where (at least some) time derivatives of the differential equations are nonzero."
Signal is a function that conveys information about the behavior or attributes of some phenomenon". In the
physical world, any quantity exhibiting variation in time or variation in space (such as an image) is
potentially a signal that might provide information on the status of a physical system, or convey a message
between observers, among other possibilities.
A system interacts with its environment through signals. There are two main types of signals

- input signals ( inputs) u,, which affect the system behaviour in some way.

- output signals (outputs) y, which give information about the system behavior.

There are two types of input signals:

- control signals are inputs whose values we can adjust.

- disturbances are inputs whose values we cannot affect (in a rational way)
Generally, signals are functions of time t, which can be indicated by u(t) and y(t)

u(t) y(t)
System

A signal is (usually) a physical quantity or variable . Depending on the context, the term
“signal” may refer to the
- type of variable (e.g. a variable denoting a temperature);
- value of a variable (e.g. a temperature expressed as a numerical value).
The value of a signal may be known if it is a measured variabile. In particular,
- some outputs are (nearly always) measured,
- some disturbances might be measured,
- control signals are either measured or known because they are given by the controller.

The clasification of the signals:

useful
random perturbation signal
Signal
determenistic periodical signal
aperiodical signal

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 §2.2 Digital and analog signals

There is a significant distinction between an analog system and a digital system, in the
same way that there is a significant difference between analog and digital data. This book is
going to consider both analog and digital topics, so it is worth taking some time to discuss
the differences, and to display the different notations that will be used with each.
Continuous Time
A signal is called continuous-time if it is defined at every time t.
A system is a continuous-time system if it takes a continuous-time input signal, and outputs
a continuous-time output signal. Here is an example of an analog waveform:

Discrete Time
A signal is called discrete-time if it is only defined for particular points in time. A
discrete-time system takes discrete-time input signals, and produces discrete-time output signals.

Quantized
A signal is called Quantized if it can only be certain values, and cannot be other values.
Here is an example waveform of a quantized signal. Notice how the magnitude of the wave
can only take certain values, and that creates a step-like appearance. This image is discrete
in magnitude, but is continuous in time:

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 Analog
A signal is considered analog if it is defined for all points in time and if it can take any real
magnitude value within its range. An analog system is a system that represents data using a direct
conversion from one form to another. In other words, an analog system is a system that is continuous in
both time and magnitude.
Digital data is represented by discrete number values. By definition:
Digital
A signal or system is considered digital if it is both discrete-time and quantized. Digital data
always have a certain granularity, and therefore there will almost always be an error associated with using
such data, especially if we want to account for all real numbers. The tradeoff, of course, to using a digital
system is that our powerful computers with our powerful, Moore's law microprocessor units, can be
instructed to operate on digital data only.
This benefit more than makes up for the shortcomings of a digital representation system.

§2.3 Clasification of typical signals

All of the standard inputs are zero before time zero. All the standard inputs are causal.
There are a number of standard inputs that are considered simple enough and universal enough that they
are considered when designing a system. These inputs are known as a unit step, a ramp, and a parabolic
input.
Unit Step
A unit step function is defined piecewise as such:
Unit Step Function

The unit step function is a highly important function, not only in control systems engineering,

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but also in signal processing, systems analysis, and all branches of engineering. If the unit step function is
input to a system, the output of the system is known as the step response. The step response of a system
is an important tool, and we will study step responses in detail in later chapters.

Step Response
The step response of a system is most frequently used to analyze systems, and there is a large
amount of terminology involved with step responses. When exposed to the step input, the system will
initially have an undesirable output period known as the transient response. The transient response
occurs because a system is approaching its final output value. The steady-state response of the system is
the response after the transient response has ended.
The amount of time it takes for the system output to reach the desired value (before the transient
response has ended, typically) is known as the rise time. The amount of time it takes for the transient
response to end and the steady-state response to begin is known as the settling time.
It is common for a systems engineer to try and improve the step response of a system. In general,
it is desired for the transient response to be reduced, the rise and settling times to be shorter, and the
steady-state to approach a particular desired "reference" output.

Target Value
The target output value is the value that our system attempts to obtain for a given input. This is
not the same as the steady-state value, which is the actual value that the target does obtain. The target
value is frequently referred to as the reference value, or the "reference function" of the system. In
essence, this is the value that we want the system to produce. When we input a "5" into an elevator, we
want the output (the final position of the elevator) to be the fifth floor. Pressing the "5" button is the
reference input, and is the expected value that we want to obtain. If we press the "5" button, and the
elevator goes to the third floor, then our elevator is poorly designed.
After the initial rise time of the system, some systems will oscillate and vibrate for an amount of
time before the system output settles on the final value. The amount of time it takes to reach steady state
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after the initial rise time is known as the settling time. Notice that damped oscillating systems may never
settle completely, so we will define settling time as being the amount of time for the system to reach, and
stay in, a certain acceptable range. The acceptable range for settling time is typically determined on a per-
problem basis, although common values are 20%, 10%, or 5% of the target value. The settling time will
be denoted as ts.
Ramp
A unit ramp is defined in terms of the unit step function, as such:
Unit Ramp Function

It is important to note that the unit step function is simply the differential of the unit
ramp function:

Parabolic
A unit parabolic input is similar to a ramp input:
Unit Parabolic Function

Notice also that the unit parabolic input is equal to the integral of the ramp function:

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 Harmonic signal:

where A,B- oscillation amplitude,  - pulsation.

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where T – period of harmonic signal f  .
T
§2. 4 Laplace Transform

A transform is a mathematical tool that converts an equation from one variable (or one set
of variables) into a new variable (or a new set of variables). To do this, the transform must remove all
instances of the first variable, the "Domain Variable", and add a new "Range Variable". Integrals are
excellent choices for transforms, because the limits of the definite integral will be substituted into the
domain variable, and all instances of that variable will be removed from the equation.
The Laplace Transform converts an equation from the time-domain into the so-called "S-
domain", or the Laplace domain, or even the "Complex domain". These are all different names for the
same mathematical space and they all may be used interchangeably in this book and in other texts on the
subject. The Transform can only be applied under the following conditions:
1. The system or signal in question is analog.
2. The system or signal in question is Linear.
3. The system or signal in question is Time-Invariant.
4. The system or signal in question is causal.

The transform is defined as such:

Laplace Transform

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Laplace transform results have been tabulated extensively.

The inverse Laplace Transform is defined as such:

Inverse Laplace Transform

The inverse transform converts a function from the Laplace domain back into the time domain.
Laplace transforms of common functions

1) Unit step F(s)= .

2) Dirac impulse δ(t); F(S)=1.
3) f(x)= => F(S)= .
4) Harmonic signal f(t)=sinωt; .
5) f(t)=cosωt; .

Proprities: let is been given two functions f(t) and g(t):

1) Superposition

2) Time delay

3) Deplacement theorem

4) Derivatives

5) Integrals

6) Limit theorems
The initial value theorem

The final value theorem

§2.5 The z-Transform

The Laplace transform is used as an analysis tools for continuous-time linear time invariant
systems. The reasons are two folds, (1) the input/output relationship for continuous-time systems, a
convolution operation in the time domain, is simplified to an algebraic relationship in the sdomain, (2)
the Laplace transform relates the time domain and frequency domain characteristic of the system. The
discrete-time analogy of the Laplace transform is the z-transform, which transforms a discrete
sequence of time domain signal into a function of the z-transform variable z.
DEFINITION z-Transform
The z-transform of a sampled sequence x(kT) or x(k), where k represents non-negative integers
and T is the sampling period, is defined by

where the complex variable z must be selected so that the summation converges.
Example Unit Step Function (Sequence)
Consider the unit step function defined by
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The z-transform of u(k) is

Example Sinusoidal Function

Consider the sinusoidal function defined by

The z-transform of x(k) is

The inverse Z- transform is definding in the following form: